Sweat Shops Alive and Thriving

Sweat Shop - circa 1890

My last blog post received a number of comments and all of them were well thought out and eloquently written. It would appear that all too many artists under value their work due to market expectations and most of us concur that the buying public is lead by Wal-Mart mentality. This is true to a great extent, though there are many individuals who appreciate and recognize the workmanship, quality and uniqueness of any type of handcrafted product that is not mass produced. As long as there is a Wal-Mart people will shop there to take advantage of the low prices and to stretch their hard earned dollars.

Wal-Mart started out as a company that proudly bought products made in the USA, they even boasted how they supported USA manufacturing. That was back in the days of Sam Walton the founder of Wal-Mart, I'm sure Mr. Walton would not recognize the behemoth that his chain of stores has become. In our day and age we would be hard pressed to find many items sitting on a Wal-Mart shelf with the "made in the USA" sticker on them .

Sweat shop - not much has changed except the century.

To read more about our big corporations benefiting from the use of cheap labor and supporting sweat shop conditions (like those of the western world over 100 years ago) click this link : http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/sweatshopsfaq.html

I suppose our only hope is that China, along with the other countries who have excessively cheap labor, will eventually end up with strong labor unions in much the same way the Western world did. Strong labor unions will insist that laborers be paid substantially and given benefits such as medical insurance, life insurance, paid vacation, cost of living raises, bonuses, retirement/pension plans and disability benefits should they incur any injury at work. Soon these workers would be earning the same amount as their equivalent in the USA, Canada, England, Australia, etc.

If there is no longer cheap labor, then perhaps companies will stop outsourcing manufacturing jobs. Once this occurs then big box stores such as our infamous Wally World will soon fill its shelves with locally manufactured goods. Since Wal-Mart is a global company I imagine that we could see items manufactured from all parts of the world, perhaps Wal-Mart would even consider changing their name to World-Mart?

So let's root for those strong, organized labor unions in places like China, the Philippines, India and anywhere in the world where big corporations exploit dirt cheap labor.

Empty Strip Malls...Space Available...A Sign of The Times

Photo above...Wally World parking lot, with green construction fence prominently in sight...sign of the times.

Wal-Mart, Wally World, what ever you wish to call it, is everywhere.  It's hard to drive very far in any direction down a busy avenue without passing one.  My own Wally World is now about 20 years old and was the first of it's kind in a good 20 mile radius.  Now we still have the old original Wally, plus 2 super-sized Wallies (called Super Wal-Mart stores) and plans for yet another, all within that same 20 mile circle...make that within a 10 mile circle! 

Photo above...Under construction. Behind the green construction fence used to be the corner and leg of the"L" in our first little strip mall.  Gone now are Radio Shack, Fashion Bug, and the Dollar Store.

The old shopping center, built in the very late 80's housed the area's first major supermarket called Publix.  The other 3 corners of the intersection were vacant, except for grazing cattle and an orange orchard.  Developers  quickly discovered the area and it became a mecca for housing developments.  In little time, perhaps 5 years or less, it was a common sight, during the holidays, to see a uniformed traffic cop directing a constant stream of vehicles into and out of the Publix parking lot.  Soon the 3 vacant corners had been cleared and new strip malls sprang up, the sweet smell of the orange orchard is now just a memory as it fell to bulldozers and made way for our gigantic class A, Publix supermarket...leaving a huge windowless, big box store sitting empty and forlorn in the old strip mall.  But the strip mall had Wally, and as long as Wally was there people came to shop and all the small shops and eateries in the center managed to survive.

Photos above and below...Store front of the old Publix supermarket, now sporting  signage that this property is available for lease.

Then Benderson Developers purchased land next to the freeway off/on ramps and began building.  That's when we got our first Home Depot, a Carrabba's, a Staples Office Supplies and our local Starbucks.
Of course the old Wally World wanted to move and get in on the action of a new and energetic shopping area that was scarcely 2 or 3 miles away.  Normally their request would have been a "done deal", however the homeowners living in the surrounding area complained and they went to great lengths to prevent Wally from abandoning the old store and building yet another, bigger better super store.  The fact that the old strip mall had one big box building setting empty was bad enough but to have 2 would have been true death for all of the small establishments that were trying to exist there.

Photo above...The old Walgreen's, now empty.  Space definitely available!

Photo below...The only thing at this end of the strip mall is a Tae Kwondo school.

Photo below...A lot of real estate sitting empty !

Amazingly Wal Mart's requests and plans were eventually denied.  Reluctantly the old store decided to expand instead.  This meant that a whole section of the "L" wing of shops would have to be vacated, the old Walgreen's Drug Store, vacated it's location and built a nice, new, stand alone building.  And now the wrecking crews have gone in and dismantled the corner of the  "L" that once housed a Radio Shack, a Veterinarian's office, Fashion Bug Clothing store, a Chinese restaurant and a Dollar Store.

Photo above...Just a small section of shops, hanging on by their fingernails and with a hope and a prayer.  There used to be a Chinese restaurant and a Dollar Store at the end of this section...then the leg of the "L" turned toward Wal-Mart .  This leg was home to a Radio Shack, a veterinarian's office, and Fashion Bug clothing shop.  All this space will become Wally's addition.  Only time will tell how this little strip mall is going to fare.